Last August, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks issued a memo to the Defense Business Board that noted that the DoD civilian subdivision doesn’t have an enterprise accession program to onboard and prepare private citizens for entry into DoD civil service careers. It further warned that the Pentagon continues to face challenges to hire civilians with the critical skill sets needed for future technologies, and called for the board to identify best practices from the public and private sectors that may be applicable to how the DoD can improve its civil service recruiting efforts to attract and retain the skills needed in the future.
Fast forward, and a newly released Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) assessment of the DoD’s efforts to build a civilian talent pipeline continues to fall short.
The Defense Business Board was initially established in 2002 to complement broader transformation efforts within the Pentagon from an overly burdensome bureaucracy to a more streamlined, and effective organization. The Board currently consists of approximately 20 private sector executives with experience in business management. It operates under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972.
Lack of Talent Pipeline
Its new study found that the DoD currently lacks any discernible talent pipeline for civilians and warned that little effort has been spent to make the department an attractive civilian employer. It further suggested that the DoD is operating in a “War for Talent,” which faces unique challenges including market stressors – such as an aging labor force, decreasing workforce participation, global competition for talent, and a rising need for “knowledge workers.
In addition, the DoD faces unique stressors that include a gap in pay, waning appeal to younger workers, a wave of federal retirements, and great power competition.
A Tipping Point for Talent
The study further called for the DoD talent acquisition approach to change as global adversaries are gaining ground and also noted that this is a problem that extends well beyond STEM hires. The board even suggested that the Pentagon must look beyond today’s fill rates – and that the future workforce planning is flawed. Outsourcing simply cannot, nor will it solve every problem.
Instead, the board recommended that the DoD follow private industry in embracing the talent pipeline to expedite hiring, expand talent skill sets, achieve better retention, and reduce talent acquisition costs.
“DoD must strive to be become the ‘Employer of Choice,'” the study stated.
Where Are the Recruiters?
A key effort that the board recommended in its report is for the Pentagon to improve its recruitment efforts from within its own human resources workforce. Currently, the DoD has about 15,000 individuals whose job it is to recruit members of the military, but there are only about 100 individuals charged with recruiting civilians. Half of those are in the United States Air Force.
Simply put, the DoD needs to refocus its brand, and do a better job of communicating the employment opportunities throughout the civilian workforce. Another issue is that many HR specialists have to recruit between other tasks, while HR centers lack the sufficient budget for tools, travel, outreach, and personnel.
Moreover, upwards of 42% of Americans are essentially unaware that civil service jobs exist within the DoD, while complicated hiring authorities, unique job codes, and pay scales present further challenges. Even when talent is found, it can take too long to complete the hiring process. The board found the average private-sector time-to-hire is 27 days shorter than within the DoD. Current DoD time-to-hire for civilians is 81 days, down only slightly from the recent high of 99 days in 2018.
Accentuate the Positives – Fixing the “Employer Brand”
Not surprisingly, the DoD must contend with several weaknesses in its brand, which the board recommended be addressed. This included the perception of the Pentagon as an instrument of “bad” wars, below-market pay, the aforementioned lengthy hiring process, and the negative stereotypes around federal employees.
Instead, the DoD messages should promote its strengths, including its unparalleled work and mission, and opportunities to grow and learn; while there are opportunities to establish a defense civil brand by promoting the “Go Green” environmental efforts, humanitarian assistance, shifts to modern office climate, and targeted benefits and incentives.
The DoD could take lessons from other government agencies to address these challenges.
“NASA is a juxtaposition of DoD. They built their brand around being a place to come and solve big problems — they know the talent profile of the folks that they’re looking for,” Matthew Daniel, a member of the DBB task group who led the study, told Federal News Network.
“They want to solve gnarly problems, build experience and move on with their career. They’ve used that as a part of their employer brand in the market, and it’s how they’re delivering messages,” Daniel added. “Based on our interviews with organizations who’ve struggled with employer brands, recruiters and sources have been given talking points on how to address candidate concerns head-on, and reshape the narrative with potential candidates. No such mechanism exists that we could find within the DoD, and there’s not necessarily a recruiter you could hand those talking points to today.”
